Robert Pawlicki column: More evidence that the world is getting better

Robert Pawlicki

Monday

Jun 17, 2019 at 10:16 AMJun 18, 2019 at 8:23 AM

The world’s population has made extraordinary, some might say astounding, improvements. Ridiculous you say. Well, such sentiments would fit with the overwhelming majority of your fellow citizens. A 2016 poll found only 8 percent of Americans knew that global poverty had fallen in the previous 20 years. It’s understandable that the public believes the world is getting worse, not better, given the bleak news we see and hear on a daily basis.

Between the opioid epidemic, mass killings, and political divisiveness, it’s hard to maintain a view that the world is getting better. Add to that our biological makeup and you have a population that is generally gloomy.

For good evolutionary reasons, we are hard-wired to be alert to danger. This biological predisposition, however, leaves us with more negative hits that impact us and stay with us for a longer time. But being on our toes for danger with information stored for future risk biases reality. Positive information gets short shift.

Making the effort to acquire positive information can offset our in-born bias and helps to create a more balanced, reality-based outlook. It also moves us away from feelings of gloom, despair and pessimism. It shows us that things are far from hopeless and directs the way to more progress. A sense of hopelessness dampens our fervor. Knowledge of progress heightens it. With a bit of work the positive news is visible and encouraging.

The latest in this positive outlook comes from www.vox.com, an organization devoted to examining world trends. They cite reductions in worldwide child mortality from 5.8 percent to 3.9 percent between 2008 and 2018 and life expectancy increasing from 69.8 to 72.2 years. Just as important this sample represents trend lines that show continuous improvements for humanity.

Trend lines are an important lens through which to view reality. The media often prefers jumping on short-term changes that are anxiety producers and that capture attention. Homicide rates in the U.S. are a good example. In 2015 and 2016 rates showed a slight increase, grabbing headlines. Omitted from those headlines was that homicides in 2016 were lower than in any year from 1965 to 2007. Fear sells, trends don’t.

Worldwide the list of positive news is extensive. Here is a partial list: Child labor is on the decline. People in developed countries have more leisure time. The percentage of income spent on food has plummeted in the US. Death in childbirth is much more rare. Teen births in the U.S. are down as is smoking. More people in the world live in a democracy and go to school for longer times. The world is more literate than in any time in history.

Don’t just take my word or the one source I cited. The data is there. The difficulty is, and I say this with sadness, it can be boring. Plus good news is often followed with a “but.” “Oh yes, homicides are down but, how about Baltimore, St. Louis and Chicago?” These well-known hot spots of violence receive substantial media play but even they have, in the big picture, shown significant trend line reductions. Nevertheless when positives are mentioned, the oft-repeated negatives come to mind and dilute the impact of the good news.

In the end we make decisions in how we view the world. It takes more work to have a balanced view, one that recognizes both the difficulties humanity faces and understands that humankind is making extraordinary progress. Check it out. It’s true.

Robert Pawlicki, Ph.D., is a retired psychologist and a resident of Savannah.

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